Does An Employer Need To Provide A Changing Area

[400bhp]

You can certainly try that but I would muster some support first, changing rooms cost a fortune to provide, as do showers. They eat up expensive real estate ( costing anywhere between £20 and £150 a sq foot per year, depending on where your office is...that's £4,000 to £30,000 a year) plus the cost to build them and then take them down again at the end of the lease..

Over the term of a 5 year lease, that lot could cost up to £170,000....plus maintenance, heating and cooling...etc

Don't be disappointed if your CFO frowns upon the idea.

Perhaps ask them to pay for local gym membership, it's sometimes cheaper (depending upon take up), is a variable cost and can be invested in smaller chunks

Agree to some extent but if the company provides car parking then the cost of shower facilities should be weighted up against the saving from fewer car parking spaces required.

Appreciate there is more to it than that from both sides of the argument

 

[MossCommuter]

Try to find out who's responsible for sustainable transport at the local council. They may be able to share the cost of construction of a changing facility with your employer; sharing cost need not necessarily mean parting with cash if the loss of real estate can be quantified, that would be your employer's share of the cost.

 

[numbnuts]

The joys of having dirty sweaty job as a Blacksmith showers, changing rooms are always provided

 

[jonny jeez]

Agree to some extent but if the company provides car parking then the cost of shower facilities should be weighted up against the saving from fewer car parking spaces required.

Appreciate there is more to it than that from both sides of the argument

I agree ...in fact as a person responsible for the design of firms office space, I find myself asking the same kind of questions almost every day.

However, weighing up car parking spaces (which are cheap and often thrown into a lease for free) isn't the way to win over a CFO.

the biggest issue is our climate. Because most people only consider cycling or running in the summer, dedicated spaces to support them are often seen by a company as a huge waste of resource. They prefer to build exciting, eye catching elements that attract the type of talent that wants to feel like it works for Facebook or Google. Touchdown areas, collaborative spaces, agile workplaces...are all more impactful on a bottom line than a changing room that stands empty for 6 months.
The best way to win over the CFO is to be holistic, start a ride to work scheme, and a lunch time running club, encourage others to join in, ask the firm to support in a win win campaign that in proves health and enhances appeal to new post grads..take your employer along for the ride, make them feel happy about all their positive, fresh faced, healthy staff members.....then when you have enough people on board, suggest they upgrade the floor to support the already huge numbers of employees who now see fitness as a work choice in this great, forward thinking firm.

Or, get changed every day in the office until someone complains and they give you a space....and then prepare to be marginalised and eventually let go.

Battle, not the war.

 

[Milkfloat]

We got our shower shoehorned into our disabled toilet. It was made into a dual use room after one too many 'hairy walnut' accidently being put on display. Although - I say dual use - we don't have anybody requiring a disabled toilet.

 

[Soltydog]

Do you have to wear a uniform of any description? Under HSE law an employer should provide changing facilities for employees who must wear a uniform, but good luck trying to force them I have to wear a uniform, but no changing facilities, however the company has a alcohol & drugs policy which says we can't drink off duty whilst in uniform, I'd love that in a tribunal when they don't provide changing facilities

 

[classic33]

Just reading thru this with interest
Not really a problem for those of us at work who cycle in because we have an office sized disabled loo to use

However we do have to change clothes before work and our changing room is unisex and communal with an outside staff entry point with cctv inside looking across the room to the door as were bonded apparently it a legal requirement from customs and excise.

Seperate changing areas are required, almost certain that a changing room is one place they cannot install a CCTV system.
"The use of CCTV in break areas, toilets and changing rooms would be hard to justify under any circumstances. In an area like a public entrance, however, where expectations of privacy are low, CCTV is more easily justified. An example of a situation which might fall somewhere in the middle would be where CCTV monitors the entrance to a department but a number of workstations fall within the camera's view, meaning certain individuals' everyday activity is monitored. In this case, it may be that the employer should look into the possibility of adjusting the camera angle to avoid disproportionate monitoring."
http://www.taylorwessing.com/globaldatahub/article_cctv_roles_risks.html

http://www.rhhr.com/protecting-your-business-cctv-usage/

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cctv-code-of-practice.pdf

 

[slowmotion]

Apart from dressing and washing, does the management have a legal obligation as regards bum-wiping?

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Do you have to wear a uniform of any description? Under HSE law an employer should provide changing facilities for employees who must wear a uniform, but good luck trying to force them I have to wear a uniform, but no changing facilities, however the company has a alcohol & drugs policy which says we can't drink off duty whilst in uniform, I'd love that in a tribunal when they don't provide changing facilities

But the terms used I believe is "special clothing". So it would depend on what the uniform is.

Something impossible/illegal to commute in? If it's a branded shirt, or some work trousers, I don't see that applying.

It, in my experience points to people like Chef's who cannot commute in whites, and must change in work. Or those working with chemicals that require special protective clothing, that can't be worn to commute.

I have of course, no idea what job you do, but "a uniform" is a little general for such a statement. I wear "a uniform", but it's just branded shirts etc.

 

[Spike on a bike]

"The use of CCTV in break areas, toilets and changing rooms would be hard to justify under any circumstances. In an area like a public entrance, however, where expectations of privacy are low, CCTV is more easily justified. An example of a situation which might fall somewhere in the middle would be where CCTV monitors the entrance to a department but a number of workstations fall within the camera's view, meaning certain individuals' everyday activity is monitored. In this case, it may be that the employer should look into the possibility of adjusting the camera angle to avoid disproportionate monitoring."
http://www.taylorwessing.com/globaldatahub/article_cctv_roles_risks.html

http://www.rhhr.com/protecting-your-business-cctv-usage/

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cctv-code-of-practice.pdf

We've questioned this before many times and there argument is always it's not us it's an HMRC requirement

Not that it bothers me getting changed in there but we're not allowed to wear shorts in work and I can't really see me cycling in trousers

Besides which I doubt anyone's ever looking and if they are I'll try to keep my walnuts in check

Of course not sure the others that work there share my view or for that matter enjoy it

But hey ho that's not my problem haven't seen it written down anywhere that thou shall not expose thy boxers in the locker room ;-)

 

[KneesUp]

I agree ...in fact as a person responsible for the design of firms office space, I find myself asking the same kind of questions almost every day.

However, weighing up car parking spaces (which are cheap and often thrown into a lease for free) isn't the way to win over a CFO.
....

Nowt is free though is it?

I expect the cost of the car park is included in the price of the office because it's assumed that everyone will want them. It's like me saying the carrier bag and your receipt are free when you shop here - they're not, I bought the till roll and the bags with money I made selling you stuff, it's just all rolled in to the price of the widget you've bought.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

We have no bike park in work, but we do have changing rooms.

Then again there's no car parking either.

 

[jonny jeez]

Nowt is free though is it?

I expect the cost of the car park is included in the price of the office because it's assumed that everyone will want them. It's like me saying the carrier bag and your receipt are free when you shop here - they're not, I bought the till roll and the bags with money I made selling you stuff, it's just all rolled in to the price of the widget you've bought.

Sure but they are not something that will show great savings by leaving out....just like the carrier bag and receipt.

Also I think town planners tend to insist upon minimal parking before passing consent on an out of town development (1 per six occupants or something like that) so parking is often "needed" by the landlord to get the building up...don't quote me on that, I don't build buildings, I just design the interiors)

I am sure you could make some form of argument with a cfo over parking but I just don't think it a huge "cost" issue

 

[classic33]

We've questioned this before many times and there argument is always it's not us it's an HMRC requirement

Not that it bothers me getting changed in there but we're not allowed to wear shorts in work and I can't really see me cycling in trousers

Besides which I doubt anyone's ever looking and if they are I'll try to keep my walnuts in check

Of course not sure the others that work there share my view or for that matter enjoy it

But hey ho that's not my problem haven't seen it written down anywhere that thou shall not expose thy boxers in the locker room ;-)

Law requires seperate changing areas be provided, for obvious reasons.
I'd be asking who's got access to the system.

 

[Spike on a bike]

Law requires seperate changing areas be provided, for obvious reasons.
I'd be asking who's got access to the system.

I'm sure it's just displayed randomly on a screen in the open plan offices
And I suppose we don't actually have to change clothes as we only wear overalls and work boots

More of a issue is the extreme heat (some 36c this week) and still not being able to even wear quarter length shorts

Of course like earlier in the thread it's all a matter of space being limited
I'm just glad I suppose to have a job that is local to my rural location